


Genesis 3:19

by momopichu



Series: One shot, One world [11]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 21:33:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11655159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/momopichu/pseuds/momopichu
Summary: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”





	Genesis 3:19

**Author's Note:**

> This started as me pondering why there were more ‘Gabe-pulls-Jack-back-from-the-brink-of-death’ fics than the vice versa. Then I started pondering the semantics about it and why it usually wasn’t (or was) possible and then you get this. I probably should be sorry but I’m really not :D

There was no denying it now, Reaper could feel it creeping up on him, tingling along the remnants of his limbs as he was forced to watch the thread that had been crudely knotted back together when he was brought unwillingly back to life came undone. The threads were fraying, sliding along each other as if oiled, pulled apart the more they were stretched taut. He didn’t want to think about, hadn’t been able to entertain the thought ever since Death itself had slammed the door in his face and left him to live a life of undeath, suffering in an endless cycle of pain and hatred.

Strange though, that those emotions had been one of the first to flee him the moment he had realised what had happened, leaving him empty and numb, lying with his back facing a crimson tinged sky as fire seeds spiralled in the air and a world turned to ash crumbled around him.

Betrayed again.

Was it possible to get used to such a thing? If so, Reaper supposed he just had. When finally the hand on his shoulder had turned into a knife in his back, held by the ones that he thought he knew what to expect from, he had become resigned to his fate. This was nothing new after all, the only things that had changed were just the faces.

Instead of Ana’s face judging him from a stiff oaken frame, it was Widowmaker watching him with unblinking amber eyes.

Instead of Jesse leaving a letter of resignation and leaving never to be seen again, it was Sombra who left without a word.

Instead of Jack who shouted accusations at him while the building collapsed around them, it was Doomfist that lit the match before his very eyes and set in motion the thunderous shudders that brought the entire compound down on top of him.

Who was it that said you could always trust a dishonest man to be just that?  _Dishonest_? Gabriel can’t remember. He was too tired to remember. His body was fraying just like the strands of life that stubbornly held together, the nanomachines that had become so ingrained within him were melting into the asphalt, spilling like thick blood down along the muted greys of stone, leaving behind black trails that dripped morosely. He was numb, cold tingling through the tips of his fingers and toes to worm up through his body, encasing his heart in a box of glass.

His mind had long since gone silent, unable to fathom why he ever bothered, why he should keep holding on. Efforts to light the flame of anger once more were easily doused as if the wood he had attempted to rekindle were drenched by the sea itself. The great man that was once the Commander of Overwatch, then the Commander of Blackwatch…

Then the revered Reaper.

_Was dying._

And Gabriel couldn’t find it in him to be upset.

Just…

_Resigned._

He would die alone surrounded by fires in a world that had been nothing but cruel, forced to watch as the last act of betrayal came not by anyone’s hand but by his own infallible body giving up on him. No one would mourn him, no one would even know he had passed…

It was what Destiny had written for him when he was set on this path.

But Fate had never been a friend of Destiny, and  _she_  had other plans.

Gabriel coughed as rough hands closed around his shoulders, shaking him gently, before pulling him up to be held in strong arms, nestled against a warm chest with a beating heart. Through watery eyes he watched as the newcomer reached for his own mask and visor with red gloves and tossed them aside, revealing blue eyes wide like polished gems and a lip trembling so hard it had to be clasped between teeth. If he could’ve, Gabriel would’ve laughed at the sight of it.

Of all the people that had come to witness his passing.

He had least expected it to be the weary soldier.

If he still had his strength, his wit, he would’ve jabbed at the old man with harsh words. Instead he felt himself sink harder into the shivering embrace, his eyes drooping, his clawed fingers twisting feebly in a too-hot grip that interlaced their fingers. Time was ticking, each second punctuated by the dripping below him and in the way the cloud in his mind continued to creep up on what little part of himself he had left.

“Be a dear would you…” He managed, sputtered out between black tar thick in his mouth and a tongue so heavy as if weighed down by irons. “and finish it… this…”

 _Tired_ , so tired.

He felt as if he laid on a pond with thick reeds twining around his limbs, trying to pull him under. He was powerless to stop it, ready to just let it all go. But the stubborn man that held him had other plans.

Gabriel’s cloudy red eyes widened as the old soldier lifted a knife to his own lips, cutting the already scarred and puckered skin until it bled anew, sweet cherry red liquid seeping down his chin.

With a deep breath, Jack sealed his lips over Gabriel’s cold ones.

Gabriel snarled, hissed, the touch of blood on his tongue was like a spark, a touch of scalding hot water on too cold skin, it burnt even hotter, and jolted him from his stupor. The nanomachines that had been calm just a moment ago, twirling like black sand free in the wind, began to spin once more, reaching and snarling as if someone had angered a hive of bees. Black blood upon the asphalt rose in suffocating smogs until it blocked out the sight of the crumbling world around him, leaving him in darkness, but a darkness that grew and shifted of it’s own accord.

Gabriel could feel it, an energy that fed through his mouth as if he was drinking from the sweetest of pools, rejuvenating him and setting fire to the ice in his limbs, cracking the crystal over his heart. Anger, hatred -  _pain_  - returned in a storm that scorched away the cloud fogging his thoughts, his clawed hands tightened their hold, his eyes slid shut in the pure ecstasy that was life returned to him. He took another long drink, and then another.

And another.

He could see it, the way in which the knot tightened once more, reaffirming his link to life. His body came back from the brink of the abyss, rebuilding itself from nothingness. The last to return to him was the memories, the uncaring look of amber eyes - _the Widow takes her leave_  - the shaking shoulders and quiet pitter patter of fading feet -  _the Shadow that ran from the darkness_  - and the gleaming golden light that radiated from a gauntlet too large and menacing to be anything but a weapon for destruction -  _he sees, the mirth in dark brown eyes. The match that was lit between confident callused hands and then dropped right before his nose…_ all this before the building came down.

He sees;  _feels himself fading, drifting._

_Be a dear would you…_

He sees;  _blue eyes soft and wet, a hand trembling to hold him tight, slowly letting go-_

Gabriel jerked back into himself, pulling away from the pool at his lips. Ruby red eyes that burned with new purpose took in the soldier. The soldier that was crumbling before his eyes, his body turned ashen, flaking and burning like parchment set on fire, cracking and turning to ash at the tips, drifting away in the breeze. Their roles reversed, Gabriel quickly grabbed hold of Jack, clawed fingers sinking, digging and crunching into the soldier’s body, as if the man’s form had suddenly turned into crumbling bark.

“Jack…” He whispered.

Blue eyes blinked open, but they weren’t blue anymore, but a marble white with cracks slithering across their porcelain surface. Still, they trained on Gabriel’s face and he nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt the other’s cold hand settle on his cheek, it’s skin crumbling, turning to dust.

How could he have been such a _fool_?

He had drunk Jack dry, taken the soldier’s soul with nary a thought about the consequence.  _But he could fix this_ , he  _had_  to.

The hand on his cheek patted him softly, cracking fingers tracing the lines of Gabriel’s face with a reverence, an emotion he had dared not place ever since he had given up a ring in favour of a curse.

“You’re better…” Jack panted, his lips splitting around the thin trail of red blood that remained. “Good.”

“Are you an  _idiot_!?” Gabriel snarled. Jack was disappearing, turning to ash right in his arms. “You never think! Always rushing in,  _do you know what you’ve just done_?” There was no answer, just the smile that tweaked at the corner of Jack’s lips, the way his eyes crinkled in the corners as if he was happy - so,  _so_  happy. “ _You gave me too much_!”

He had to make Jack see, make Jack understand. With fumbling hands he found the biotic emitters that the soldier always carried, he set them down quickly, enveloping them in a dome of golden light. If anything, the light of the healing nanites only emphasized the cracks that had begun to snake across Jack’s face, driving deep under his shirt, drawing patterns of lightning across the wrinkles of his palm.

_No, no, no, no, no…_

“ _Why_!?” Gabriel screamed. His taloned hands dug deeper, sinking into the soldier’s shoulder as if the man were made of crumbling sand. He didn’t need to breath, but the air wouldn’t stop filling his lungs, pressing painfully against his ribs, protesting as his rapidly beating heart fought back, thundering a rhythm too fast to catch. “ _Why did you give me your soul!?_ ”

“Because you were dying.”

Gabriel blinked.

“I couldn’t save you before,” Jack continued. “But I can save you now.”

_And that’s all that matters._

He closed his eyes, and within the circle of Gabriel’s arms, crumbled to dust, quickly pulled apart by the wind to scatter like petals across the earth. Gabriel could only watch, could only try to grab onto the remains until there was only the puddle of ash within the center of his palm - all that remained of Jack. The Jack he had thought had betrayed him, only to have come back…

Gabriel always did wish to be the one that ended Jack.

It would be what the man deserved.

_But not like this._

The Reaper, with taloned hands clawing at his smoldering hood, folded in on himself, nursing the ashes of what he once loved. And screamed to all the heavens.

_xxx_

**Author's Note:**

> This was kinda a break-the-writer's-block fic for me. Still unsatisfied with some bits, felt like I couldn't get them right. Let me know what you think!


End file.
